Empty sub­way cars trundle from the Cap­it­ol to the of­fice build­ings with a whoosh straight out of a Star Wars movie. Foot­falls re­ver­ber­ate loudly off the white-stone walls in the Rus­sell Build­ing. Gil­ded el­ev­at­ors bong and open their doors — no need for the usu­al Sen­ate two-step be­cause there’s no one in­side.

While the Sen­ate was open for busi­ness this week­end, all the activ­ity at­tend­ing a nor­mal le­gis­lat­ive ses­sion was largely ab­sent.

It was so quiet that Sen­ate Ma­jor­ity Lead­er Harry Re­id, D-Nev., had time to squeeze in a reg­u­lar doc­tor’s ap­point­ment with a phys­i­cian in the Cap­it­ol.

An aide said that some re­port­ers thought Re­id was secretly head­ing to House Speak­er John Boehner’s of­fice, or per­haps to meet with Minor­ity Lead­er Mitch Mc­Con­nell. But this was just a reg­u­lar checkup — and noth­ing’s the mat­ter with Re­id, the aide said.

For Mc­Con­nell, the slug­gish sched­ule af­forded him a chance to get back to Ken­tucky, where he faces stout polit­ic­al op­pos­i­tion on the right from busi­ness­man Matt Bev­in, and the left from Demo­crat­ic can­did­ate Al­is­on Lun­der­gan Grimes. That he wasn’t in the Cap­it­ol also sug­gests the level of dis­agree­ment between cham­bers and the dif­fi­culty of a deal.

“He is meet­ing with con­stitu­ents, but re­mains in con­tact with his mem­bers and is avail­able if a vote is called at any time this week­end,” said spokes­man Mi­chael Bru­mas in an email.

Many of the sen­at­ors in the Cap­it­ol were ju­ni­or Demo­crat­ic mem­bers, tapped to preside over the Sen­ate. For ex­ample, Fresh­man Sen. An­gus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Demo­crats, rushed onto the sub­way from Dirk­sen, pre­pared to give a floor speech, then preside over the cham­ber.

But there were Re­pub­lic­ans, too. Sen Mike Lee of Utah sparred over the shut­down from the well of the Sen­ate with his Demo­crat­ic col­leagues, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine offered a pro­pos­al she thought could serve as a polit­ic­al es­cape hatch for both sides, re­peal­ing the med­ic­al device tax (for Re­pub­lic­ans) and of­fer­ing agen­cies flex­ib­il­ity in ap­ply­ing se­quest­ra­tion cuts (for Demo­crats).

There were no votes Sat­urday, but there was par­tis­an rhet­or­ic from the floor. Clearly ex­as­per­ated at how dug in her col­leagues are, yet still op­tim­ist­ic about break­ing the im­passe, Collins sug­ges­ted sheath­ing the rhet­or­ic­al dag­gers.

“I think the more people who are will­ing to put ideas out there — and if not mine, someone else’s — the bet­ter,” Collins said.

The Sen­ate re­turns at 2 p.m. Monday, with votes on ju­di­cial nom­in­ees later in the even­ing. The Sen­ate might also take up the House-passed mini-con­tinu­ing res­ol­u­tion provid­ing for back-pay for fed­er­al work­ers, aides say.

But Demo­crats and Re­pub­lic­ans will also pick up the fight over the shut­down where they left off — dug in as ever.

"Chuck Rosenberg, the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Agency who has found himself and his agency at odds with the Trump administration in recent months, told staff members Tuesday that he is planning to step down from his post." The Obama administration holdover will step down on October 1.

Source:

HAD BEGUN TO PUBLICLY CRITICIZE TRUMP

Sen. Corker to Retire

1 hours ago

THE DETAILS

Another Republican member of Congress is showing himself out the door. After much thought, consideration and family discussion over the past year, Elizabeth and I have decided that I will leave the United States Senate when my term expires at the end of 2018,” said Sen. Bob Corker in a statement. The Tennessean has served since 2006.

Source:

NOT ILLEGAL, BUT MUST BE FORWARDED TO WORK ACCOUNTS

At Least 6 WH Advisors Used Private Email Accounts

2 hours ago

THE LATEST

Jared Kushner, Stephen Bannon, Reince Priebus, Gary Cohn, Stephen Miller, and Ivanka Trump sent or received some emails on personal accounts that related to White House business. "Officials are supposed to use government emails for their official duties so their conversations are available to the public and those conducting oversight. But it is not illegal for White House officials to use private email accounts as long as they forward work-related messages to their work accounts so they can be preserved."

Source:

SAYS CONTACTS WERE “BENIGN”

Stone Releases Correspondence with Guccifer 2.0

2 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to Donald Trump, released correspondence Tuesday" with the online hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 , which "U.S. intelligence agencies said was used by Russian government-linked entities to distribute embarrassing information about Democrats during the 2016 election. The disclosures came in a 47-page opening statement made available to reporters in advance of Mr. Stone’s Tuesday appearance in front of the House Intelligence Committee." Stone called his contacts with Guccifer "limited" and "benign."

Source:

PRIEBUS, SPICER, HICKS, MCGAHAN

Mueller Could Start Interviewing White House Figures This Week

2 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Special counsel investigators could start interviewing current and former White House staff as soon as later this week regarding the Russian probe, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. One source cautioned it is still being worked out with Robert Mueller's office and said it might be delayed until next week." Among those who could have a sit-down with the special prosecutor: former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former press secretary Sean Spicer, communications director Hope Hicks, White House counsel Don McGahn, communications adviser Josh Raffel and associate counsel James Burnham.